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A trilogy of horror stories, CIRCUS OF CLOWN, SCREAMING SKULLS, and TAG – YOU’RE IT, TAG-YOU’RE DEAD, TWISTED is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat!
CIRCUS OF CLOWNS
Cindy Carver hated clowns. The kids at school called her house “The Clown House” because her mother had a huge collection of clown memorabilia. Cindy knew as soon as she heard her mother humming the “Oom-Pah-Pah” song that there must be a new circus in town and that they were going. Only this wasn’t like any circus Cindy had ever been to. Everyone at the circus was a clown, and they were dirty, and skinny with torn and ragged costumes. They also had a mean, hungry look in their eyes. The longer Cindy was at the circus, the more spooked she became. In her hast to leave, Cindy tripped and landed on a batman watch that she had seen a chubby little boy win earlier. That night the dreams started; dreams of clowns chasing her, wicked laughs and faces, hands grabbing her, and a large BBQ grill, standing hot but empty, waiting for fresh meat. Soon after, Cindy heard that the little boy who had lost the watch was missing, along with his brother and the local brownie group. Cindy kept having the feeling that she was being watched. She new there was a connection between the clown circus and the disappearing kids. Would she be next? Was that BBQ waiting for her?
CIRCUS OF CLOWNS is downright creepy! Cindy’s fear and suspicions are very tangible feelings for the reader. Sann Banks’ tale of children eating clowns is sure to give you a chill and make you think twice about going to the circus.
SCREAMING SKULLS
Twins, Bobbi and David Fleming are on their way to Arizona for a camping trip with their dad. Their dad, an entomologist with a specialty in spiders, has a short job with the Bureau of Land Management to do first, then they can continue their trip. But the short job turns into an investigation into the death of a man by spiders. While their dad checks into the spider situation, Bobbi and David do some exploring of their own in the desert and find some skull fragments. When they take the skull pieces to the town museum they see a case holding six crystal skulls with glowing eyes. The museum owner, Spirit Wolf, tells them the legend of the SCREAMING SKULLS. But there should be seven skulls. And in a day’s time at the full moon, the true nature of the seventh skull will be unleashed, and with the help of its spider minions, will spread evil on all mankind. Can Bobbi, David, and Spirit Wolf locate the seventh skull before it starts screaming for evil? And if they do find the skull, what will they do about the thousands of spiders protecting it?
For those with arachnophobia, SCREAMING SKULLS may not be the story for you. But for anyone who enjoys a little scare, this will definitely give you one.
TAG – YOU’RE IT, TAG – YOU’RE DEAD
What starts out a simple child’s game of tag turns deadly in TAG – YOU’RE IT, TAG – YOU’RE DEAD. Iris and Butch, best-friends, are spending their summer on the beach trying to stay out of their respective parents messed up lives and away from the Tag Club, a nasty group of town kids. But when they stumble across a dead woman and a gold set of keys that were buried in a dune, their summer ends up anything but peaceful. The gold keys belong to Nancy, the leader of the Tag Club, and she will do anything to get them back. Nancy invites Iris and Butch to play a game of tag and join their club, but when they refuse, the Tag Club surrounds them and takes them to the run down house they use as headquarters. When Iris wakes up from blacking out, she meets a ghostly witch who says she will help Iris and Butch escape if they will help her vanquish Nancy, who is not a kid but a old, evil witch that is using the Tag Club in her own deadly game. But do Iris and Butch have enough faith in themselves to join the good witches against Nancy and her evil Club?
You’ll just have to read it and see.
As a horror book, TWISTED sure fits the bill. For lovers of tales like Stein’s Goosebumps to Steven King’s books, Sann Bank has written three stories sure to scare the wits out of you. Before I even read the book, clowns and spiders were not my favorite things, but now, I’m on the lookout for spiders with clown noses that want to play tag! Like things that go bump in the dark? Make sure you bump into TWISTED.
Reviewed by Tina Burns
for The Road to Romance
March 25, 2004
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